Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang nixed pay raises across the board for 8,000 staffers while the publishing giant gets ready to swing the ax.

Sources say that a flurry of pink slips, which many feared would fly next week, has been pushed off until early February — closer to the date when Time Warner is set to announce fourth-quarter earnings.

One source said the publishing giant is looking to shave $100 million in costs by cutting between 500 and 700 jobs, which would be the largest set of layoffs in memory.

“They’re still coming,” said one insider.

In a memo to staffers, Lang revealed the no pay-raise policy for 2013, but avoided any direct talk of layoffs.

“While we are evolving, the publishing business in the short term remains challenged. These are unavoidable facts,” she said. “As we position ourselves for growth in the future we must continue to aggressively manage costs.

“After much thought and discussion, we have decided we must eliminate the annual merit increase in 2013.”

Department heads were usually given a 3 percent average increase to spread around their staff.

Lang, the former CEO of Digitas, was appointed to the job in November 2011 but didn’t formally take the reins until January of last year.

In her memo to the troops yesterday, Lang tried to tamp down some of the worry even as the core print business loses ground to the web.

She said the company “continued to gain advertising market share and remain the number one publisher in both revenue and ad pages, once again outperforming the industry as a whole.”